HEARTBREAK, IDEAS & A LAUREL

Hello Everyone :)

So,  Novel unveiled, the awesome event I told you about has come and gone. 

I remember asking Deji, the amazing organiser of the event how he initiated it, and he said that it started with an idea. One he wasn’t afraid to implement, and Voila, on November 30^th , he saw the birth of his dream.

It was an event where several innovators and inspirers met to discuss ideas, passions, and life words. They include: Steve Araba (Social entrepreneur), Ademola Aderigbigbe ( Brand Consultant extraordinaire), Zubair Abubakar (Nigerian constitution App developer and the owner of one of Nigeria’s largest gaming company), Salem Kosemani (My favourite freak, and winner of the world bank youth innovation in 2013), Sotonye Okolubo (Biz tycoon, Owner of Spanache), Olumide Okesanya (One of my fave spoken word artiste) , and yours truly.

Learnt a lot from these awesome individuals;

Steve Araba reminded me of how important ideas are.

Seriously, it’s one thing to have an idea and it’s another thing to execute it. But oh well, like every relationship, love is beautiful, but you gotta work hard to maintain it, so is it with your dreams.

Sotonye explained the importance of uniqueness in business.

She has an organic spa. Did you know that a mixture of Coffee, lime and baking

soda can work wonders on your face? Also, Coffee, honey and brown sugar are

great exfoliators?  ‘You can never teach

a person to be innovative’, she said, ‘it’s a choice we have to make ourselves’.

Ademola's inspiring talk ‘ Re-imagine Work’ is forever in my head....two questions that stuck were: ‘if you are constantly looking forward to the weekend, holidays, etc on a Monday morning, then you have to re-imagine work? ‘If you think that retirement will give you peace of mind in the end, then please ‘Re-imagine work’? I love his analogy to temple run...are we constantly running in circles in life? Remember, you are living your own reality show. Are you enjoying it?

Game Man made us dance. Game man made us think. Game man encouraged us to use our words. Game man loved my work..I'm humbled.

Salem, Zubair and Israel almost made me switch

professions....Being an IT person or a ‘Techie’ is so cool. Wow. 

Israel is a 13 years old kid who would soon launch his maths app. Think future ‘Bill Gates'.

Salem and Zubair taught me the importance of using time wisely and being innovative...yep, innovation is the future...and when they said- heart break = world solution, I just agreed. Pain can be a stepping stone to greatness. No?

I spoke too, on living a great legacy, cos that’s what matters, ‘cos that’s how we live forever even when we are no more. I encouraged everyone to give responsibilities to their abilities, to matter even if it’s for a day. 

I love this quote: 'When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent

left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me' - Erma Bombeck

Can’t wait to share the talk with you as soon as it is uploaded. Excited!

When God gives you a dream or an idea, executing it is your way of saying thank you to him.

What great ideas do you have?

Got this from the novel unveiled team. Surprised. Thankful. Mama's new fave decor :)

I never imagined I would get a laurel or would speak one day when I started this blog. This laurel means so much to me (so grateful to God for it);

it reminds me that a life of purpose and passion is so worth it. Also, the fact that you read this blog means a whole lot more to me. Wow!!!!! Thank you.

A colleague once asked: 'What can I do for this generation?' 

What can you do to make an impact, cos you are unique and the positive things you do matter a lot?

Source: Youtube

Like Steve Araba says, it would be rocky at first, but in the end, it’s so worth it.

Have a beautiful day!

Hugs!!!!!!

Cakes, Flowers, Love and Valentine :)

Hellooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have the cakes, flowers, Teddy Bears and the red-y stuff started arriving? There are so many shows coming up this period, some goes for like N 500,000 Or N 1,000,000….And it’s all for love or is it?

Yesterday, I had this discussion with my boss ‘Hey, Mr. B, so what will you be getting your wife for valentine?’ and he replied, ‘Ah!! Valentine is for young people, me and my wife celebrates our love everyday, not on a special day. She’s always close to my heart.’ And I was like, ‘wow!!!!’

There is something about ‘Old’ Love :))

Well, why are we celebrating valentine then?

Been looking for the history of valentine and trying to figure out what the hype is about. History.com, Wikipedia, etc has so many theories on its history. One of the many legends that intrigued me was this story…

“Saint Valentine was a priest of the early Christian faith who lived in ancient Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. At that time, 14 February was treated similar to a public holiday to honor Juno, the celebrated queen of the Roman gods and goddesses of women and marriage.
One of the customs associated with the celebration was to write the names of girls on slips of paper and then place them in containers. Boys of the same age group were then invited to pull a name from the container and the girl drawn would have to accompany him for the duration of the festival. The partnership could last up to a year. It was a method for youngsters to meet ‘legally’ as there were strict rules about them meeting otherwise. This partnership gave them the chance to develop a loving relationship, which could later turn to marriage.
Under Claudius, Rome became involved in violent and bloody campaigns which affected many young men of military age. Because of the custom involving the young men and women, Claudius took drastic steps and banned all engagements and marriages. His reasoning behind these extreme measures was that he felt that young men were reluctant to leave their wives or sweethearts and go to war. 
Saint Valentine, with the help and support of another man, Saint Marius, began to perform secrete marriage ceremonies for those wishing to marry. Eventually, knowledge of Valentine’s activities was brought to the attention of Claudius. He ordered the immediate arrest of Valentine, and thus he was placed in prison. After being brought before the authorities in Rome, he was sentenced to be clubbed to death, after which he was to be decapitated. According to tradition, while he was awaiting his fate, young people would throw flowers and notes of encouragement in through his cell window. 
Another story relates that the jailor’s daughter continued to visit him prior to his execution. She was blind and through his prayers, her eyesight was restored. Seemingly on the eve of his execution, he wrote a note thanking her for the friendship and loyalty; and supposedly signed it, ‘Love from your Valentine’. The following day, 14 February 270 AD, the sentence was carried out (some sources indicate the dates 269 and 273 AD). Thus Saint Valentine’s Day was born; he is the Patron Saint of Love, Young People and Happy Marriages.”

Source-Galway Independent

I love this story ‘cos I think Valentine goes beyond romantic gestures. It’s about the fight for True Love and great friendships.

Tomorrow, everyone is expecting some gifts. Cakes, flowers, and Teddy Bears (I hope to spend the day on Skype, talking to my BF in faraway Canada...But we do that almost everyday ^_^.)

Sometimes, I feel like Feb 14 has been set aside to shower love on that special person. But, is love a one-day affair? 

The way I see it, just because he sent a cake to you or you had sex with her doesn’t mean they love you. If that Legend was true, then it means Saint Valentine ensured that 2 people in love got married. But is it love to be married and then after 72 hours you get a divorce?

I guess the whole point of Valentine is to promote true love and true love goes beyond spending just one day with someone.

It’s about being selfless. It’s less of you and more about the happiness of someone else forever.  True Love is being like GOD because He is LOVE.

God's love is so amazing. He let His Son die for us so that we can be friends with Him. I see how my mom acts when any of my sisters is ill? She’s would be so worried and sleep at the hospital even if it’s not necessary. Imagine, THE DYING PART. Ah!! that's like killing her too.

But God allowed Jesus die for us. His love for us is just so extravagant.

That’s the kind of love that should guide us as we celebrate this season. Loving others not just for a day but for forever. Loving others like you love yourself and like God does.

 *********************

A close friend of mine and I had an early Valentine day outing at the House of Gold Hospice last weekend.

It was fun with them. It was heart-breaking wiping tears off Kolade’s face and telling him, everything will be Ok. We loved playing 'Catch' with victory and Ebuka is the naughtiest boy ever (Don’t know where he gets His strength from. He’s super energetic and just had a heart surgery). And the girls couldn't stop playing with my braids. Hehehehehe #wonderfulmoments :))

So happy to see my 'hardcore' friend, Duke Keata, Smile, Yayyy. The power of kids and happiness :))

The kids were awesome and even though they had some sort of disability, they showed me in more than many ways that life is beautiful. It depends on how you chose to see it and live it.

Oh Kids!!!!! :))... Me. Duke, Ebuka and the girls. We were only allowed take pics with these 3 amazing kids. The other angels were asked to stay back. #hospice-policy. But I'm grateful to God for this memory...Yayyyy!!!!!!

It was a beautiful day and I am so hoping to be there this weekend by Gods grace. ~Fingers crossed~

Remember there’s more to valentine than the gifts and cakes and flowers and having a touch of 'RED' to our attire. There's more to the whole commercialism associated with Valentine day.

It’s a celebration of love....True love....Lasting Love....

Song of the day- Emeli Sande; My kind of Love

Big Hugs.....

Thanks a billion for reading ;))

Happy Ending

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How is it going?

So are you in love?

I am. So in love with my man. Even though he’s sometimes naughty and maybe not so ‘lovable’ (hey I’m being honest) but he’s my best friend and he makes loving him so easy. I love him. Enough of me.

How’s your love life? Do you believe in happy endings- running off with prince charming or princess ‘fairy-tale’ and living in your white picket fence or is it a mansion?

Avril Lavigne once sang ‘So much for my happy ending'…Truly, for some, ‘happy endings?’ uhmm, is a tough one. Look at the divorce rate nowadays, couples fight, they call it irreconcilable differences and I wonder why that burning flame of long ago fizzled out. I read in the paper about a couple who got divorced ‘cos the man talked too much. And I wonder, didn’t you know that before you got married?

I’m not saying to endure your marriage. You should enjoy it. Problems will come. Stages will come when you would feel overwhelmed but work through it. I heard this somewhere and it captures all of what I want to say: ‘No relationship is all sunshine, but two people can share one umbrella and survive the storm together’…Really, if you try to work at it, let God and his principles in, it would work out. Happy endings are for real and you can have yours. It’s no biggie.

Remember even at moments when he/she is not so lovable

E.g. Like this...

work through it, communicate, be yourself, and don’t judge or insult. Make your relationship fun, dance and like my psychologist guru tells me, 'the easy way out is leaving ‘cos he/she dirties the room all the time and you are OCD but what’s your assurance that the next man/woman you meet wont be a hitter or a cheat? Leaving for flimsy excuses are like exchanging problems. Don't do that'. 

Don’t settle, but remember that there’s no perfect person.

‘Do to others what you want them to do to you’. Life will be easy. Your happy ending is so feasible. It takes two to tango and two (Never neglect God) to make it work.

Love you plenty!!!

Wishing you and that special someone forever love.

Song of the day: Emeli Sande, lifetime

Thank you so much for reading. Hugs J